In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s creation and the opening of her jar are described most fully.
Works and Days is a didactic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod and generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Its main concerns include justice, honest work, farming, seasonal advice, and the consequences of human wrongdoing. The Pandora episode appears within an explanation of why human life includes hardship and labor.
The poem says Zeus ordered the creation of a woman after Prometheus’s theft of fire. The gods contributed gifts, and Hermes brought her to Epimetheus. Pandora then opened the container, releasing destructive conditions into the human world while hope remained inside.
Hesiod’s Theogony also mentions Pandora, but only briefly. It connects her creation with Zeus’s punishment and names the gods involved without telling the entire jar episode in the same detail. The common English phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from later translation tradition; Works and Days actually uses the Greek word pithos, meaning a large jar.